Ask Us Anything
Withholding taxes, impeaching Kristi Noem, propaganda, and knowing where to donate
If you have not already done so, please become a paid subscriber to Wolves and Sheep and Bowers News Media for $8 per month or $80/year. You will receive access to two paid articles per week, invites to our monthly briefings, opportunities to ask us questions in our Ask Us Anything series, and the ability to post comments on our articles.
What would happen if people/states did not pay federal taxes this year? Is this idea too out there?
(Chris) Definitely pay your taxes. Taxes mostly go to pay for the social safety net, and defunding the social safety net is not a good moral or political move.
More importantly, not paying your taxes is illegal. I would never advise anyone to commit illegal activity—or, for that matter, any legal action that carries with it great personal risk—in the name of activism.
Go to school. Go to work. Pay your taxes. Follow the law and take care of yourself. Engage in democratic dissent such as speaking your mind, contacting your elected officials, donating to causes and candidates, voting, volunteering your time, attending meetings and engaging in peaceful protests. We already have an entire suite of effective democratic actions that we can take to change the government. No radical new tactics are necessary.
I’ve been wondering what the point is to impeaching Kristi Noem. Not that I don’t hate what she’s been doing. It’s obviously reprehensible. But she is clearly not the one who is making the policy. If she’s impeached they’ll just put someone else in her place who will do whatever the people who are currently directing KN’s actions tell him/her to do. It’s not like anything is going to change.
(Matt) Authoritarians view everything through the lens of strength. If we don’t push back in every way possible against Trump’s authoritarian impulses he will assume that he can get away with whatever he is doing. There are few things Democrats can do to keep Trump in check while they are out of power, but pushing for Noem’s impeachment is one of them. They can’t impeach her on their own, but pushing for it puts pressure on Republicans to take a stand and keeps pressure on the administration. And we can call for Stephen Miller’s resignation at the same time.
I don’t want to be led around by false propaganda, but I also don’t want to fall into the trap of simply assuming that everything the other side says is false, because that leads to the assumption that everyone on the other side is stupid, which I know is not true. Do you have any suggestions for a process to second guess what you hear on the news and in social media?
(Chris) There is often at least a grain of truth in what the opposition says about us. Whether or not it is more than a grain is something that will vary from issue to issue, and news cycle to news cycle.
To sort out the propaganda and misinformation from reality, the best and honestly only thing you can do is to spend less time consuming the news, and more time researching the accuracy of what you have already consumed. Use Google. Use AI tools. Read a wide variety of sources. Subscribe to more Substacks. Check out background material via books and longer articles. The news isn’t going to sort itself out for you—that is something you have to do the legwork on yourself.
How realistic is it that Trump’s desperate efforts to change the election system for the midterms and 2028 will succeed?
(Matt) Not very, but he wants you to believe it will. His best bet is to create doubts about the legitimacy of the vote and scare Democrats into staying home. It will be close to impossible for him to nationalize the election process. The president has no authority over elections, which are governed by state laws and carried out at the precinct level.
What can I do as an individual in Alabama to help protect our elections in November?
(Chris) I like this question a lot, as instead of just becoming a big ball of anxiety about elections, it asks what an individual can personally do. The answer is also easy: volunteer to become a poll worker. A simple Google search for “volunteer to be a poll worker” will help you find local resources to get you started. You can also sign up at Power the Polls.
Months ago I donated to Jon Ossoff’s campaign, and I don’t regret it. He deserves to be re-elected! But I got on EVERYONE’s list from there. I must get 6-8 different requests weekly. As a 73-year-old who lives on her Social Security, I can’t possibly send money to each of these Democratic candidates. I WANT to donate to each of them, but it ain’t gonna happen! So can you tell me, who should I support and when should I support them?
(Chris) It can definitely be difficult to sort out all of the different donation requests you receive, especially with a limited budget for donations.
For one thing, yes, I would suggest waiting on making any donations to campaigns until the primary for that campaign is over.
However, if you can’t wait that long, or if you simply don’t have time to figure out which campaigns are still in primary mode, I have created an Act Blue page that allows you, with a single donation, to support the eventual Democratic nominee in all winnable races for House, Senate, Governor, Attorney General and state legislative seats everywhere in the country in 2026.
On this Act Blue page you will find the various national Democratic Party committees tasked with winning the House of Representatives (the DCCC), the Senate (DSCC), governorships (DGA), state legislative races (DLCC), attorney general races (DAGA), and Bowers Kerbel Media, which is the parent organization of Wolves and Sheep and the Bowers News Media news and activism email list.
Thus, with a single donation, you can contribute to the eventual Democratic nominee in literally every major winnable race nationwide between now and November 2026. (Note: The amount you give to each individual entity can be adjusted on the ActBlue page. You can give $0 to an organization if you do not wish to donate to it.)
You can even make this a recurring monthly donation by choosing the “Yes, Count Me In” button under the “Make it Monthly” option. Doing so would wrap up your political donations for the rest of the year!